Friday, March 06, 2009

President Obama announced a few key State Department Appointments today. He announced these posts: Esther Brimmer, Assistant Secretary for International Organizations, Phil Gordon, Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs and Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues.

Melanne Verveer has a lot of great international experience under her belt. She is Co-Founder, Chair and Co-CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international nonprofit that invests in emerging women leaders.

Before founding Vital Voices, Verveer served as Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the First Lady in the Clinton Administration and was chief assistant to then First Lady Hillary Clinton in her international activities. She was a part of Hillaryland! She was really really close with everyone, including Hillary. Calling their staff "a family."

She was Born in Pennsylvania and attended Georgetown University. And before serving as assistant to the First Lady, she served as Executive Vice President of People for the American Way, a civil rights and constitutional liberties organization, she was Coordinator for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs for the U.S. Catholic Conference, Field Manager of Common Cause and worked in the U.S. House and Senate as Legislative Director and Special Assistant respectively.

Verveer is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Women's Foreign Policy Group, the Washington Institute on Foreign Affairs and Women In International Security.

My second post on this blog was about Hillary's loyal followers infiltrating the State Department, which was getting a lot of negative criticism at the time. At the time her name wasn't even mentioned. I think it's great! She is very qualified and I don't really foresee this being a negative thing. I really hope the media doesn't blow this thing up! It can't hurt that she has had a lot of experience working with Hillary. If anything, I think it will really push women's rights and global women's issues higher up on the agenda. What could be better than that?!

The media is saying Obama's decision to nominate an Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues in itself is "UNPRECEDENTED" and reflects the great importance of women's issues to the new administration and the world. Yes! Bring on the Women's Rights!